


What A Lovely Day

by heart_full_of_magic



Category: Fate: The Winx Saga (TV)
Genre: #PaniValentinesDay2021, (only in the 2nd chapter i swear), Angst, Ben is a good dad and a good friend, Cute Kids, F/M, Family moments, Fluff, Humor, Introspection, Secret Missions, Set Up, Silrah is sneaky, Valentine's Day, cuteness, i love the Harveys, relationship, sad second chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29404317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heart_full_of_magic/pseuds/heart_full_of_magic
Summary: Tired of seeing the two soulmates dance around each other, the Harvey family decides to give them a little push on Valentine’s Day. It ends up going better than they expected. For the Harveys, at least.#PaniValentinesDay2021
Relationships: Ben Harvey & Sam Harvey & Terra Harvey, Farah Dowling & Ben Harvey & Saul Silva, Farah Dowling/Saul Silva, Silrah - Relationship
Comments: 27
Kudos: 75





	1. The Harveys' Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- mostly dedicated to Pan, who was talking about a Valentine's fic :)  
> \- hopefully this doesn't seem OOC, constructive criticism is always welcome!  
> hope you enjoy! <3 and happy Valentine's Day!

“You’re sure you put it in her office?”

“I left it right on her desk! If she doesn’t see it, she’s blind.”

“Hey! That’s mean!”

“It’s not mean if it's true!”

“Both of you, be quiet!”

The two teens immediately fell silent, looking up at their father, who had raised an eyebrow at them. The three of them were standing in the hallway, hidden from the view of most students currently walking around the school. The bald man peeked down the hallway again, then hid again and looked back at his children with a playful grin.

“If the two of you keep making this much noise, I’ll never take you on a secret mission ever again.” He teased, causing his oldest to frown in indignation. 

“That’s not fair! It was Terra that asked the question in the first place.” He jabbed his sister’s arm with his finger, causing her to let out a surprised yelp and try to jab him back, which he dodged. Ben sighed, turning his gaze back to the hallway to make sure that nobody had been alerted to their presence.

The three Harveys were on a mission, one of the stealthiest missions they had ever taken as a family. Today was February 14th, the most romantic day of the year, and they were about to get the Headmistress and Headmaster of Alfea to finally, finally confess their attraction to each other. Their methodology had been carefully planned out over the past week, with the little family having thought out multiple ideas before finally settling on this one. Or rather, Sam and Terra ranted and theorized while Ben listened and held back his laughter.

The idea was to trick each of them into thinking that the other had sent them a rose and a Valentine’s card, with the words “I <3 U” printed on it along with the sender’s name. Of course, the cards would cause confusion (as far as Ben knew, neither of them had ever sent Valentine’s Day gifts to each other), causing them to talk to each other about it. During this conversation, they’d be forced to talk about their feelings, and those destined sparks would fly. As an ideal result, Sam and Terra had calculated that this interaction would end in an established relationship, with “so many hugs and kisses,” as Terra stated dreamily. In a worst case scenario, Farah’s office was likely to be destroyed, and an awkward tension would settle around Alfea for a few months.

It was safe to say the three of them were really hoping for a good result.

The Harveys were currently standing in a little hallway with the perfect vantage point to spy on Farah’s office. They had figured this was the best way to watch without getting caught; they could see when Farah or Saul entered the office, and would definitely be able to hear if anything dangerous happened.

“This is the sneakiest mission ever,” Terra whispered conspiratorially, bending down and peeking into the hallway again. “They’ll never see us coming.”

Ben blinked. There was a certain irony in this, he thought for a moment, being back on a mission. He remembered a time when those words had meant something completely different, and had pushed him into being someone he now hated. He remembered when those words had come from someone he had considered a teacher, a mentor, someone he admired. The earth fairy pushed away those thoughts as he spotted a woman walking down the hall. He recognized her immediately, and hid behind the wall again.

“It’s Auntie Farah.” Ben said quietly, which caused Terra to let out a little excited sound. Sam put his hand over her mouth in order to keep quiet, to which the girl slapped his hand away and narrowed her eyes at him. Ben cleared his throat as quietly as he could, giving the two another stern look. But the three of them eventually peeked around the corner again.

It seemed Farah had walked into her office, but there was someone else approaching the door just a few moments after she did. A man. Ben also recognized him, and a slow smile spread across his face as he realized what was going on. Saul must’ve gotten the Valentine that Sam had sneakily left in his office down by the Specialist rooms, and had probably walked over here to ask her about it. And if Farah was just now entering her office, it meant that she would see the Valentine. The plan was working!

The three Harveys held their breaths as the Headmaster walked into the room and closed the door behind him. They couldn’t hear anything from their vantage point, but they figured they would know if one of them said something the other didn’t quite agree with. No news was good news, in this case. But all three of them hoped that they were finally confronting their feelings about each other. Terra had hoped Uncle Saul would be the first one to ask Farah how she really felt about him, while Sam believed that their honorary aunt would pry the man’s feelings out of him before revealing any of hers.

“Well… Auntie Farah doesn’t seem to have thrown anything around yet.” Sam spoke up. That was also good. It was common knowledge that heightened emotions caused magic to become erratic and unpredictable, and Ben couldn’t imagine how one could react to an unreciprocated love confession. But he was confident, as were the little Harveys, that this wouldn’t be the case. They were meant to be together, and this would be the little push they needed.

Terra suddenly let out a little gasp and squeal, tugging on her dad’s shirt, and Ben and Sam’s attention immediately went to the Headmistress’s office door. Farah and Saul were walking out together, much closer than they had been when they had entered. Ben’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he saw their hands entwined (in _a public space_ ), and what looked like Saul whispering something in Farah’s ear. As the fairy giggled-- _giggled?!_ \-- she suddenly noticed the Harvey trio standing in the hallway.

“Ben! Sam, Terra, we didn’t notice you three there.” Farah looked brighter than Ben had ever seen her, and she didn’t even let go of Saul’s hand. “Aren’t you two supposed to be at lunch?” She directed that question to the two children, who stood there with their jaws almost on the floor, similar to their father. 

The children had essentially been raised by the three adults, and they had always seen the duo as being incredibly close. Even in their school years, Ben was a firm believer that Saul and Farah had clicked from the moment they had met. They had spent nights together playing games with their group of friends, but Saul and Farah had always been close to each other, hands or legs touching at almost every opportunity. As soldiers, this hadn’t changed. He was a firm believer that their bond was tangible, and, as his children described it, they were soulmates. 

But both of them had always been very careful with the image they projected to the students who passed through the halls of Alfea. Farah was always put together, an understanding but aloof Headmistress. Saul was always firm and stoic, pushing his Specialists hard and always on the lookout for troublemakers. They couldn’t be as openly warm with their students as they were in private. Sam and Terra had seen that as they got older and began interacting with more of the Alfean students, who would often complain about how gruff Silva had been during training and how Headmistress Dowling had coolly addressed a class.

Which is why it was incredibly surprising to see the soft smiles on both of their faces, and the fact that _they were still holding hands_. In a public hallway!

Sam snapped out of it first and nodded quickly. “Uh-Yeah, we’re supposed to be at the canteen… We just wanted to say hi to dad.” He looked up at Ben, his eyes sparkling with a mixture of delight, excitement, and surprise. The man couldn’t hold back a wide smile, and looked back to his two friends, who had confused expressions on their faces. Farah’s gaze turned to him, as if expecting a more thorough explanation.

“Yes, and I, uh… wanted to ask… uh…” He stumbled to think of an explanation, silently cursing Sam for putting him on the spot.

“He was just wondering how you two were doing on Valentine’s Day!” Terra spoke up sweetly, her arms gripping Ben’s arm in excitement. She was bouncing on the tips of her toes, flashing a wide smile at the Headmistress and Headmaster.

Farah and Saul looked at each other, then Ben, then Sam and Terra. Ben could see Farah’s slight suspicion in the children’s extremely good mood with her narrowed eyes, and Saul just looked confused. But the two of them still had that telltale sparkle in their eyes.

The Harveys had done it! Or at least, it seemed like they’d done it. After being their friend for the better part of all his life, Ben could proudly say he recognized their facial expressions and body language pretty well. Both Saul and Farah looked extremely relaxed and happy, and the Specialist’s thumb seemed to be rubbing circles on the back of the mind fairy’s hand. The lines of worry, exhaustion, and tension that had settled on both of their faces had even relaxed a little. Some sort of conversation had definitely happened, and it had ended with them being happier and unafraid to be seen in public being close. It wasn’t hard to connect the possible dots.

“Yes. I was… wondering. But you’re right, we should be having lunch now.” He turned to Sam and Terra, who were looking up at him knowingly. “You two go ahead and I’ll catch up with you in a moment.” Sam immediately nodded, and grabbed his sister’s hand before she could run to hug Saul and Farah, who still looked suitably confused. The little Harveys started walking down the hall, and Ben turned back to his two friends.

“Ben, what is this all about?” Saul asked bemusedly. The earth fairy’s eyes looked at their entwined hands again, then at Farah, who was looking at him with raised eyebrows as if she was hoping her friend would explain what had just happened. Ben cleared his throat.

“I’m so happy for you two. Ah…Very good job. Yes.” He stammered, adjusting his glasses and bouncing on his heels. Farah raised her hand to cover her smile, while Saul looked down at the floor to avoid laughing at their friend’s nervousness. “Feel free to take the day off, I can take over anything you two have to do.” He paused for a moment, then gave them both a quick hug, his giddiness almost impossible to contain. The earth fairy looked at them for another moment, then turned away and walked down the hallway.

As Ben caught up with his two children, he gave them a very discreet high five as they turned the corner. Their laughter followed him as he walked, a smile on his face. 

Mission accomplished.


	2. A Mission For Another Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- honestly not quite sure where this came from, but i felt like the first chapter needed a follow-up and i played around with some introspection here  
> \- this chapter isn't quite as fluffy as the first one. much introspection, much feels and angst. sorry about that.

Farah and Saul still stood in the hallway, waiting until all the Harveys were fully out of their sight before dissolving in fits of laughter. The mind fairy was almost wiping tears out of her eyes, while the Specialist was laughing so hard he had doubled over, holding his stomach. Once their hysterics had subsided, they were finally able to catch their breath. 

“Did you see Terra’s smile?” Farah said as she laughed, pulling her hand from Saul’s as she wiped at her cheeks. “I thought she was going to burst!”

Farah and Saul had realized their setup the moment they had seen the Valentine’s gifts left on their desks. It was true that both of them had never sent each other Valentine’s Day gifts before, but they had a reason for it; both of them disliked the “holiday,” as years of teaching at Alfea had taught them just how much mischief teenagers got up to during the day of pink explosions and chocolate hearts. Ben wasn’t a teacher that dished out disciplinary action often, so he hadn’t quite been around those situations enough to know how much their exasperation reached its limit during Valentine’s Day. 

Saul had walked into Farah’s office with a grin on his face, having recognized that she hadn’t sent him the Valentine’s card that was in her name. When he saw she was holding up an identical card, signed by his name, they couldn’t help but laugh. They had come to the conclusion that it likely had something to do with the Harveys, as Saul had spotted Sam around his room earlier in the day (the kid wasn't as sneaky as he thought, even while he was moving through walls). And Ben had always recognized how deep their bond ran and how easily they could be close to each other, so it wouldn’t be unlike him to slightly encourage his kids to push them to “confess.”

They thought it would be funny to prank the Harveys back, and pretend that they had finally confessed something to each other. Both of them couldn’t wait to see the children's’ reactions to them finally being “together,” and thought it would be hilarious to see Ben giddy with excitement. And it _had_ been hilarious.

But they hadn’t expected it would make them truly think about what they truly felt for each other.

They’d been close for more than two decades, had been through battles and forests together, had stayed up late talking and drinking and had recovered in each other’s arms. The Specialist and his fairy trusted each other with everything that they had, and the fairy and her Specialist had a bond that connected them in every possible sense. But they’d never truly talked about their relationship. Their school years at Alfea had been a whirlwind of training, fighting, the forming and tearing apart of their friends, and littered in between had been passionate kisses and nights spent in each other’s arms. As they’d grown older, those moments had gotten much more scattered until they faded away entirely. They had remained close, with soft words and gentle touches. But they had never really been a _thing_ , not explicitly. His hand in hers, their shoulders almost touching, had sent a flurry of emotions through both of them.

Saul wished it was real.

Farah wished it wasn’t so real.

Their years at Alfea had been stained by the war that seemed never-ending, and there had never really been time to relax. Saul had seen Farah be swept up into their Headmistress’s regimen, and had watched as she slowly fell until she could no longer pick herself up. He had been desperate to keep her safe, to protect her as much as he could, and he had vowed to never let anyone harm her that deeply-- or at all-- ever again. To his dismay, there had been moments when he’d failed. He didn’t have magic, he didn’t have an army, he didn’t have enough in him to fully protect her from everything. Saul was very much aware that the mind fairy beside him was incredibly powerful, and their mentor had always described her as someone who could rule the world with just a snap of her fingers. But in those moments, when his arms went around her waist and her hands cupped his cheeks, Saul hoped he was enough for her. He hoped he was enough to keep her nightmares away, hoped she would care for him just as much as he cared about her.

Farah could feel it, she could feel it so constantly and so thoroughly that it overwhelmed her at times. She’d spent almost half of her life in the shadow of someone who she’d loved and admired more than she thought possible, and had ended up hurt because of it. But she’d had Saul there to help her, she could feel him through it all, and the purity and depth of his emotion for her had flooded her senses more than she thought they would. They had stuck together despite everything thrown at them, and she couldn’t imagine spending her life next to anyone else. Even during their time at Alfea, she’d been the one he confided in. She had been honored to hear things he’d never told anyone, deeply touched by his trust in her. Saul was worth more to her than any piece of gold or silver, and she would go to the ends of the Otherworld for him. The depths of their bond and their emotions were terrifying, but there was no one else she’d rather face it with.

But it was never the right time.

There was always another monster, another enemy, another pile of papers to grade or another student to be concerned about. The few rests they’d had in between had been filled with a simple relishing in the fact that they had _survived_ the past two decades. It had never quite been the right time to talk about their feelings. And so it went undiscussed, barely even mentioned in their low murmurs and soft touches.

“Are you okay?”

Farah met Saul’s eyes as he spoke, realizing that both of their smiles had faded when they settled into silence. She could only wonder what he was thinking of-- she wouldn’t ever pry. He studied her with a look of light worry, wondering why the lightheartedness of their past moments couldn’t stay.

“Fine,” She smiled at him. “Just thinking about how we’re going to tell Ben we’re not actually together.” Her chuckle was enough to make him smile again, and he scoffed lightly.

“I’d be a little bit more worried about Sam and Terra. I expect to find poison ivy in my office from a very frustrated teenager.” Saul was glad when she laughed heartily again, and the Specialist and fairy began to make their way to the canteen for lunch.

He would be content in being her protector and best friend. 

She would be content in being his anchor and best friend.

Until they found the right time, they would spend their Valentine’s Day in exasperation and quiet longing.


End file.
